What Power BI gives you for free, and when and how to pay for extra services

Part one of a three-part series of blogs

You can create and publish reports using Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service, both of which are free, but to share them you'll need to pay either for Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium. This blog explains when you'll need to start spending money, and what your options are.

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Power BI paid services (Pro and Premium)

You can create and publish beautiful reports in Power BI Desktop, but you
won't be able to share them with the world. This blog shows when and how
you might use the two paid services for Power BI:

Service

Notes

Power BI Pro

This gives individual users the right to share reports, and to view reports that
others have shared.

Power BI Preimum

This provides a blanket licence for your organisation, so that you don't have to
take out individual Power BI Pro subscriptions.

Let's start with the simpler one: Power BI Pro.

Be aware that Microsoft changed the rules in May 2017, introducing Power BI
Premium and adding extra features to the free version of Power BI Desktop.